Practical Experience
by Writingwife83
Summary: Sherlolly Uni!lock one shot, set in the Pleased To Meet You ficverse. Molly drags Sherlock to a party and hopes things go well. But he's hardly skilled in the art of socializing...especially when there's alcohol involved!


_**This was a prompt from Tumblr name ihartbennyc. Thanks for bringing me back to the Pleased to Meet You days! It was fun! ;)**_

* * *

Molly honestly didn't know how it would turn out. She certainly entertained the possibility that she would be sorry. There were about a million scenarios that could result in awful embarrassment for her and Sherlock...well, probably just her. What were the chances that he would end up embarrassed?

She tried not to focus on the grim odds though. There were only a couple of weeks left before Sherlock would graduate and move on from his time at University. She was content to soak up as much time with him as possible...even if that did mean dragging him to a party.

"I hate these people," he muttered as they walked along the darkening street to the nearby building that the party was being held at.

"I'm not even sure you know most of these people, Sherlock," she said with an accompanying sign.

"I know enough," he said haughtily. "They all want to gather together in a packed room and get drunk while dancing around like idiots. What more do I need to know?"

"Well just...stick with me then," she said with a forced smile. She tried to tell herself she was worrying for nothing and surely this party would be just lovely. Perhaps if she got a drink or two into him...though she knew that plan could backfire.

Soon they had arrived and Molly desperately tried to smile happily as she made the first couple of awkward introduction between her friends and Sherlock. Most of them knew of him of course, but seeing as he had little social life they didn't know him well.

"Why don't you have a drink, Sherlock?" she yelled over the music, leaning over close to his ear. _Oh God, he smells good..._

"I don't want a drink!" he yelled in return with a disgruntled look on his face.

Molly set her lips in a tight line and sighed before turning on her heels and marching off. She didn't even listen to him. She came back with two cups of beer. She shoved one against his chest, making him take it.

"Drink it!" she commanded, with a stern look on her face.

He defiantly stared her down for a moment, and then he rolled his eyes and brought the plastic cup to his lips.

"Thank you," she said with a contented nod. "Just try to relax."

"I hate this music!" he complained. "And exactly why does it have to be this loud? I can't hear myself think!"

"You're not supposed to be thinking very hard right now, Sherlock! You're supposed to be dancing, and drinking, and you know...just having a nice time."

Sherlock squinted at her. "Sorry, do we know each other?"

Molly gave him a shove on the arm for the sarcastic comment. Just then, one of her friends came over.

"Oh hi, Danny!" she said with a grin. The man immediately leaned in, holding her in a tight hug for a moment.

"Glad you could make it, Molls," he answered, conspicuously looking her up and down. His gaze shifted to Sherlock and he clearly bristled a little. "Sherlock, nice of you to come along. Taking a break from the books tonight?"

"Mm," Sherlock hummed in answer with a disingenuous smile. "Can't take a break from my mind though, can I? Unfortunate that you had a fight with your girlfriend right before you came here tonight. Is she here as well? Oh wait, don't tell me, I can get this! Um...no she isn't here with you and the relationship might just be over."

The young man stared wide eyed and irritated at Sherlock.

Sherlock clicked his teeth. "That's a shame. I would caution you tonight, Danny. It is awfully common to make bad decisions in the wake of an emotional break up. Especially in the setting of a party with free flowing alcohol." He raised his eyebrows knowingly and took a swig from his own cup.

"Well aren't you a barrel of fun?" He sneered at Sherlock before looking back at the sheepish Molly. "Save me a dance eh, Molls? I'll see you round."

Sherlock watched the man walk off after giving him another nasty glance. "You should probably avoid dancing with him, Molly," he said in her ear.

"The poor man! And you just made it worse! No need to rub it in his face if he's suffering."

"Oh please! Don't feel sorry for him! Would you like me to detail why his relationship ended?"

Molly put a hand up, stopping him short as she grimaced. "No, please, I really don't want to hear. Can we just try and have a good time? Why don't you stay here and mope for a few minutes. I'm going to go talk to some people...try to actually have some fun!"

Sherlock pouted and downed the rest of his beer as Molly walked away, and then he marched over to the drinks. If she wanted him to relax...he'd show her relaxed.

* * *

Molly lost track of time as she talked and danced with some of her girlfriends. At some point, she noticed a girl rush past her and run out the door crying hysterically. She looked in the direction the girl had come from and she saw another girl and boy involved in animated argument. Sherlock stood right by them, leaning on the wall and drinking from his cup. Molly had a sudden sinking feeling and excused herself from her friends to rush over.

As she approached, Sherlock roughly grabbed her shoulder and leaned in to whisper loudly, "He was sleeping with both of 'em!"

Molly narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you...drunk? And please tell me you're not the one that caused this!" She gestured toward the fight that was now moving outside.

Sherlock waved his hand around, gesturing messily to his mind. "Can't jussst...turn it on an' off!"

"Oh God..." Molly groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. A sober Sherlock Holmes was bad enough. "Why don't I stay with you for now hmm?"

"Pfff! What for? I'm fine!"

Clearly, the aspiring detective was not an accurate judge at the moment. After Molly took a sniff in his cup, she ascertained that he had switched to drinking hard liqueur after that first beer Molly had given him. Not a wise choice, given the fact that she was pretty sure he'd eaten very little for most of the day.

Molly tried to contain Sherlock as best she could. But it seemed his embarrassing drunk deductions were difficult to bottle up. Most everyone who passed by them or stopped to try and have a chat with Molly was subjected to something offensive.

"You...you're planning to return that blouse tomorrow, aren't you? I can see the tag inside the collar!"

"You avn't slept in two days...trying to study...failing though!"

"Mmm...You're pregnant, aren't you?!"

That one was the last straw, and Molly finally shoved him onto the dance floor and wrapped her arms around his neck after she fastened his hands around her waist. He obediently played along, not really fighting her. In fact, she was a little surprised to find that despite his current state, he moved along rather skillfully to the moderately slow sway of the music. She swallowed hard feeling her cheeks heat up and realizing that this solution brought about its own set of issues.

"I like...dancing," he mumbled, and rested his cheek a bit heavily against the side of her head.

"Oh, do you?" Molly asked along with a little giggle. She had to admit it was entertaining to see him like this. "I didn't know that."

"Well I did!" he said with a slur. "Tha's why _I'm _gonna be the detective."

"Mm, yes you are," she answered, trying not to laugh hysterically in his face.

Just then, Danny came over and tapped Sherlock on the shoulder.

"Hey, mate, can I cut in? I want to have a dance with Molly before I leave."

"_Nope!_" Sherlock spat at the man with an accompanying grin.

"What's your problem? Molly, come on." Danny attempted to wrap his fingers around Molly's forearm and pull her away from her current dance partner.

Sherlock reacted instantly, despite the alcohol in his system. He gave the man a shove, making him stumble back a couple of feet.

"Hey!" Danny yelled, walking back over to them. "Molly, why don't you lose this drunk idiot?!"

"Drunk idiot?" Sherlock mimicked. "You're a bigger idiot even if you were stone cold sober! D'you know how to work with body parts?! I think not! Molly thinks that's important. Tell 'im Molly! She's gonna to be a pathololgissst y'know!"

"You're out of your mind!" Danny looked just about ready to pounce if Sherlock uttered one more word.

"Sherlock, stop!" Molly said desperately, trying to turn his face to look at her. "Danny, I think I'd better stick with Sherlock for tonight. Thanks for the offer though."

Danny continued glaring daggers, and Sherlock raised a gloating eyebrow at the poor young man.

Molly and Sherlock finished the dance including a rather melodramatic dip at the end.

"Whoo!" Molly squeaked in surprise as he had lowered her effortlessly and then swung her back up to standing. This earned a few cheers from the other guests and Sherlock took a less than graceful bow just before Molly began dragging him away from the dance floor.

"Well...I think we should probably call it a night. What do you say?" Molly asked cheerfully, already tugging on his hand a bit.

"Was that it?" he asked with a grimace as he spun around looking about the room. "Everybody else is still here!"

"Oh, yes, well...I think they're about to wrap things up though. Besides, I'm a bit tired. Perhaps it would be best if I didn't stay. Would you mind terribly?" She did her best to plaster on a sweetly apologetic expression.

Sherlock clapped a hand on her shoulder. "If you need to go, Molly, I suppose I can..." He gestured, trying to come up with the words. "...tear myself away."

"Thanks, Sherlock, I really appreciate it. Ok, let's go then!" She clapped her hands together, hurrying them out of the building before anything else happened.

Sherlock stumbled outside and Molly just barely slipped an arm around his waist to steady him before he headed into some shrubs.

"Tst tsk tsk...not my area." He clicked his tongue, looking down at her as they walked along locked together. "I thought we had an underssstanding, Miss Hooper."

Molly laughed dismissively, but was glad of the dark that hid her red cheeks. "Don't flatter yourself. You happen to be a bit less appealing when you're drunk."

Sherlock pursed his lips exaggeratedly. "_Less _appealing? That would imply...typically being _more _appealing."

Molly huffed at his sadly accurate conclusion. "You should probably stay away from deductions when you've been drinking."

"Can't ssstay away, y'know that! Deducing is like... breathing!" he said dramatically.

Suddenly he spun out of Molly's grasp and looked as if something occurred to him. "D'you know what we should do, Molly?" he asked with wide eyes.

"Um...get some sleep?" she queried with a badly concealed smile of amusement.

"We should...fence!" Sherlock began making some wild fencing motions with his arms and stepping around with a much messier stance than Molly was used to seeing from him.

She couldn't help snorting out a laugh and quickly covered her mouth, trying to keep composed. "Um, Sherlock, I think the gym just might be locked up right now."

He stilled, but continued to sway slightly. He looked a bit let down. "Oh...what time i'zit?"

"It's about half past midnight. I'm pretty sure the gym closes at ten." Molly quickly swept in and wrapped her arm around his waist again, guiding him back along the path to their building. "But I promise we'll go tomorrow, all right?"

Sherlock looked down at her with a mock stern expression and pointed at her for emphasis. "We'd better! I'll hold you to that, Molly Hooper! You should be thankful we're not going now...dunno why, but I feel a bit dizzy."

"Mm, I can't think why." She bit her lip to keep from laughing. And she was pretty sure that fencing would be the last thing on Sherlock's mind tomorrow when his head would no doubt be splitting.

They finally got inside their building and Molly got Sherlock to his door, helping him unlock it. She turned his key, left it in the handle, and turned back around to look up at him.

Molly felt color rush to her face again as he stared down at her. "Well, um...thanks for coming with me tonight. It went well," she lied, wearing a sweet smile.

He narrowed his eyes and leaned in, resting his forearm against the door as he looked closely at her. A smirk began to play on his lips and he pointed at her face as he began speaking slowly.

"You're pupils...dilated," he said in a somewhat smug tone.

Molly swallowed hard and licked her lips. "Yes well, it's a bit dimly lit in this hallway isn't it? That would explain it since...your pupils are dilated too," she said with a nervous laugh.

Sherlock let out a low lazy chuckle. "Mm...terrrible deduction."

She tucked some hair behind her ear and smiled up at him as casually as possible while her heart beat like a drum in her ears. How drunk was he exactly? What if she were to lean upward just a bit? She somehow doubted that he would push her away at this moment. Oh, how she remembered the taste his lips. How could she even hope to forget? The way he kissed her with a flawlessly combination of gentle and passionate; playing her like an instrument. She wanted to feel it all again, and more, so badly. But she couldn't help wondering what the cost would be.

Molly cursed her practical and sensible ways as the next words escaped from her lips. "I should probably...move out of the way, so you can get in."

He frowned for a second. "Why? Where are we again?"

Molly laughed again as she slipped out from between him and his door. "You're back at your room, Sherlock. Go in and get some sleep." She gave him a pat on the back which pushed him the rest of the way through his now opened door.

He gave her a sloppy looking salute with closed eyes, looking like he was already half asleep. "G'night..._Dr. _Hooper!"

Molly giggled and shook her head. "Don't get ahead of yourself, _Detective..._I'll see you tomorrow." She gave him one more fond look as he closed the door, then retreated to her own room upstairs.

* * *

Molly took great pleasure in knocking on Sherlock's door the next morning. As she fully expected, he came to the door bleary eyed, with hair going in all adorable directions. He was still wearing the same clothes from the previous night, but had thrown a dressing gown over the whole outfit. She smiled at him, not even trying to conceal the look of amusement.

"Good morning, Sherlock! Ready to go soon?" she asked cheerily.

He frowned at her and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Wherever you are referring to...no, I am not ready to go. And would you mind not yelling?"

"Ah, bit of a headache I'd imagine. So I take it you weren't waiting expectantly to go fencing with me after all?" Her tone was teasing.

Sherlock made an expression of confusion for a second, and then he began visible paging through his mind palace. He groaned slightly and rubbed his eyes again as the details began coming back to him.

"I'm just kidding, Sherlock," she said with a playful shove on his arm. "I'll let you go back to bed now. I was just headed to get some breakfast and I couldn't resist stopping by to see the after effects of our interesting night. Oh and if your intent was to discourage me from trying to take you to any parties in the future, you are even more clever than I'd previously thought!"

"Flattered that you'd notice. Now please let me go back to sleep," he moaned.

"I'll stop by again later with some coffee and something to take for your head. You went a bit overboard, so most of today won't be terrible pleasant."

"Never again!" he said sternly, holding his head. "I hold you personally responsible for making sure I never attempt such a thing in the future!"

Molly laughed, making Sherlock wince. "Right, I'll do my best. Too bad you don't always listen to me!"

She got a halfhearted smile from the poor man and grinned back at him before leaving as he shut the door again.

Sherlock trudged back toward his bed and collapsed with a groan. He looked over at the skull on his bedside table.

"Shut up...You're too loud as well!"


End file.
